Just a dream
by Raeinspace
Summary: AU, When Alex enters Kara's dreamworld – from the BlackMercy attack – she is surprised to find Kara has paired her up with Astra.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Slightly AU, Alex appears in Kara's dream world, paired with someone who surprises her sister.**

* * *

 _It was Krypton_. Alex looked around, finally getting to see the place where her sister had been born.

 _This was the place that made Kara happiest?_

Alex supposed she could understand why she had chosen this home – a chance to be with her parents again. She was a little disappointed though, she had expected Krypton to be a little brighter, to have more colour. Even looking out through the windows she was disappointed with the view. She began calling for her sister as she moved through the strange halls, surprised there were no family pictures unlike her own home growing up.

"There you are!" Kara's voice welcomed Alex into the largest room she had found so far.

Alex stared at the woman who looked so like Astra - but without the familiar white strand of hair, the little boy in red, the older man standing next to Kara. Only this Kara had her hair curled and wore a long flowing dress making her look so much older. She looked so happy.

"Kara…"

"We've been waiting for you."

"You have?"

 _"I have."_

Alex turns at the familiar voice. Astra is standing there, smiling at her. She looks different too, so much more relaxed than Alex has ever seen her and there's something else. Alex frowns as she tries to understand, and she turns back to Kara.

"This isn't real, it's just a dream."

"Of course it's real. You've been ill, with a fever, and the doctors were worried about treating you because you're human. This is where you're supposed to be."

"No it's not. I don't belong on Krypton; you know that this planet is gone. Only you can break the hold of the Black Mercy," Alex flinched and stepped away as Astra came up beside her, trying to put a hand on her arm.

"Alex," Astra spoke her name softly, "they were just nightmares. Just give yourself a chance to remember."

"No, Kara you have to try and remember the truth. You grew up on Earth. You're my sister. I know you think this is the ideal world, that you could have had the ideal life here but it's not real. Getting what you want through some parasitic alien that lets you live in this dream world isn't real happiness. You have to fight to remember."

"But you're happy here too," Kara tried to assure her.

"How did I get here? You know I'm human, that I'm from Earth not Krypton."

"Aunt Astra crashed on Earth during one of her scouting missions. You helped keep her safe from the authorities on your planet."

"But the only reason I'm older than you is because you were trapped in the Phantom Zone for all those years… and why would Astra bring me back with her?"

Astra smiled at Alex, reaching out to stroke the side of her face, "oh darling how could I not bring you back?"

For a moment Alex froze, staring back at the woman who had been trying to take over her planet for the past few months, then she quickly stepped away turning to her sister: "Kara, what the hell…?"

"It's okay that you love her," Kara reassured her, "remember we've accepted that you want to be together and we're all happy for you both."

"Listen this has gone far enough. Earth needs you to be Supergirl and I need my sister…"

"Supergirl?"

"Yes, you're Supergirl. A hero, raised on Earth. You have to try…"

Kara stepped away from her family, towards her sister as a handful of memories broke through, "Alex…"

"That's it," Alex smiled at her.

"No!" Alura grabbed Alex and pulled her towards the transporter, while Kara's father went for the controls to send her away. "I think it's time for you to return to Earth. We'll have a ship take you home."

Alex reached out for her sister, "come with me."

Kara took a step forward, but Kal-El held onto her arm, "please don't leave me."

"It's not real!" Alex called out to her as the transporter began to glow.

Kara watched her sister disappear. In her heart she knew what she had to do.

* * *

Alex followed Kara out of the DEO, trying to catch up to her sister. She had seen the look on Kara's face when she woke and knew where she was going. Telling her that Astra had helped save her only revealed that other Kryptonians had been responsible for the attack.

"We need to talk," Alex called after her.

"Later. Once we've stopped Non and the others."

"I know you're upset…"

Kara stopped and spun around, "I'm angry."

"Me too. When the hologram of Alura didn't know what to do I was worried."

"We can talk about our feelings later. Right now I have to find the Kryptonians."

"Not until you explain why." Alex caught up to her sister.

"Why what?"

"In that perfect place you wanted, I was there even though I wouldn't have been part of your family. You didn't have to do that. You could have forgotten about me."

"Oh. That."

"And the other thing. With Astra."

Kara looked away as she tried to compose an answer that she wasn't sure her sister was ready to hear.

"Part of me wanted you there too of course. You're my sister Alex. That's something I would have missed growing up on Krypton and you're my family too."

"But Astra….?"

"I wanted her to be happy. She was always so lonely back then. I see the way you two are around each other, I guess I just thought..."

Alex stared at Kara, "I…"

"It's okay. If I misread the situation I'm sorry. We can talk about this later, Supergirl is needed out there."

Without saying anything else, Kara used her super-speed to leave and Alex was left with a head full of questions. Luckily DEO duty called and Alex was able to focus on something else. At least, that was the plan.

* * *

Hank passed the binoculars to Alex as they waited to see whether Wynn's hunch was right. Part of Alex wanted Astra to be the one to show so that she could prove Kara wrong, another part of her was just a little worried that in seeing Astra she would be distracted remembering how close the other woman had been to her before.

"There," Hank pointed to the sky just in time for Alex to catch the dark blur of a flying Kryptonian before they landed.

They waited to break cover, needing to confirm the aliens plans. As soon as Astra reached out to make her move, Alex yelled her name to get her attention. Then another Kryptonian landed and Alex signalled Hank that she could handle Astra and he should deal with her comrade.

The Commander smiled as Alex approached, but it wasn't as scornful as the one she had seen previously, this time it was hopeful, "Is Kara…"

"She's fine."

"I'm glad."

"She'd be better if you stopped what you're doing, you and your friends."

"We're trying to help save your planet," Astra returned, beginning to circle Alex as if looking for a sign of weakness.

Alex mirrored her, "then work with us, not against us."

"I tried that once before. They refused to listen. This is the only way."

"Kara trusts us."

"My niece is still a child, she follows her heart. She is naïve."

Alex wasn't sure she disagreed. Still, she had a job to do… she raised her weapon, aiming it at Astra. Before she could blink, the alien was in front of her grabbing her wrists.

"Why you thought you could face me alone, human…"

A dark shadow loomed up behind Astra, it was Hank in his Martian form. Alex saw him raise the Kryptonite weapon and quickly shook her head to stop him. His reflexes were fast enough to make him stop, but he placed the green sword against Astra's back. The radiation it emitted would remove her super strength.

Alex broke Astra's grip on her and reached into her pocket for a pair of Kryptonite-laced handcuffs, "it helps when we have something to make you just as human."

"You will not win. When Non completes our plan, I will return to him and you will suffer the same fate you plan for me," Astra lifted her chin defiantly, her gaze cold.

"Let's get them out of here," Hank told Alex, heading over to his already-handcuffed opponent.


	2. Chapter 2

Astra refused to waste time while she was in the cell. Non and the others would come for her soon and she needed to be ready. She had spent an hour stretching and strengthening her muscles, now she rested - appearing to meditate. Really she was recalling her reactions from the few moments when she had moved close to the edge of the Kryptonite cell. There had been discomfort but no pain. She smiled. Kara hadn't told them about the material that made her practically immune to Kryptonite. That was a mistake. If only…

"Aunt Astra?"

Astra's eyes opened instantly, "Kara?"

She was too slow to stop a smile forming on her face at the sight of her niece. Kara looked well, she was relieved to see.

"I wanted to thank you, for telling Alex how to help me…"

"I would never do anything to harm you."

"…and to warn you that I will stop the others. Will you help me?"

Astra stood, folding her arms at the question, "I will not betray my people."

"What happened to the aunt who taught me the names of the stars around our planet?"

"A planet that no longer exists because they refused to listen to me!"

"So you would rather hurt the humans, take away their freedom to listen… to choose their own path?"

Astra shook her head sadly as she answered, "there is no second chance for us. If we fail here, the last of our race…"

"Then at least we will have died with honour."

"There is no honour in failing to protect those weaker than yourself because you chose to stand by and do nothing."

"I use my Kryptonian strength to help them everyday. What you are doing is an act of war, against my planet."

"I am who I am. Who I was trained to be."

"Sure, the _General_. You could have been so many things, aunt Astra. Why that?"

"The universe is a dangerous place. You've encountered a small sample of it with the other prisoners released from Fort Rozz. While those who, like your mother, preferred to live in a sheltered bubble talking about peace someone had to protect them." She smiled at Kara, "and I was good at it. You have the warrior's spirit in you too, niece."

"I suppose that is why you married Non? Because he is like you too?"

"Non… he is a warrior, but not a leader."

"And you love him?"

Astra laughed, "I forget you were still a child when you left Krypton. No Kara, I don't love him. I liked him above all the men I had met before and that was enough. I was luckier than some, in that way."

"Did you marry him because you were lonely?"

"Krypton wasn't paradise. I had been brought up among the 'elite', I was expected to excel at something that would help our planet and keep me above the general rabble – medicine, the law, science. My parents never understood that my talents lay in commanding fighters, planning battles and winning them. As I rose in the army they began planning my marriage, hoping to turn me from that life to the kind of wife who would stay by her husbands side and be a credit to the family name. Non fell far below their expectations, but we had so much in common and he liked and respected me for my talents… I married him because I knew that was the only way I could be a General. He accepted that we would never have children."

"I don't understand."

"I suppose you were taught about the one-child rule? We were told that there weren't enough resources for more than one child per couple nearly a century before you were born. Perhaps that was why we didn't have the scientists we needed to save our planet. They spent enough time working on the sterilisation serums, using them on the parents after the first child was born. For the wealthy citizens of course, there was a way to reverse it – just in case something happened to their heirs, because it was so important that _they_ had someone to carry on the family names."

"You and mother are twins."

"Another thing their science failed to detect in time. Did you know that among the poorer citizens, if multiple births occurred the younger child would be sent to a special facility where they were trained to be part of the military? They were sterilised at birth, their food was rationed, they lived in primitive buildings, which used minimal resources for things like heat, and they were taught from books instead of computers. They were the first sent into battle, they were considered expendable, "cannon-fodder" to borrow one of your earth-terms."

"But that didn't happen to you."

"Alura was the heir, I was their spare. Mother hid me from the Council as long as she could, and then refused to hand me over using every piece of leverage she had. I used to think it was because she loved me. Then I discovered that my dear sister had been ill as a baby, the medics worried that the condition could re-occur and she might die. My mother only kept me around, raising me with Alura, just in case something happened."

"I'm sure she loved you."

"The Council gave her a choice: when we turned sixteen one of us had to be sterilised, just so that there could be no 'accidents' which would cause the poorer citizens to be angry with them. Of course, she knew it could be reversed - but _only_ by the Council, and _only_ if something happened to the other of us. Two months before Krypton was destroyed, they rescinded that rule. The population was dwindling too low, recent battles wiped out half the army. By then it was too late. Even if I had wanted to reverse it, I never had the chance."

"I'm sorry that grandmother didn't chose you as her heir. Despite your recent actions, I think you would have been a good mother."

Astra grimaced and turned away, "I made the choice before she had to. I took the serum and joined the army because I knew Alura loved your father. I knew she wanted a child, the same way I knew I would never fall in love. I became a warrior because that should have been my fate all along. It was just luck that I am good at it."

Kara wished she could open the door and go inside to comfort her aunt, but with the Kryptonite in place she couldn't defend herself well enough if Astra tried to break free. She didn't know what she was could say. Alex would have known, Alex always knew the words to make her feel better.

Kara waited outside the cell a little longer, just in case her aunt wanted to talk more. Then the red light above the door came on, the signal that her time was up. Alex had promised to distract Hank as long as she could, to give her sister time with Astra but the light was her warning that he was on his way to question the prisoner.

"I have to go," she finally spoke.

Astra ignored her.

"Thank you for saving my life today," Kara added as she opened the door.

She watched her aunt under the door closed, but there was still no response.


End file.
